A Typical Day in New Delhi... (part 3)

6:30p Back in my neighborhood... avoid the cows at the round about.

Or if you're my roommate from Montana, try to start a cow street stampede to no avail. Indian cows are just chill, they know they can do whatever they want...



6:35p I'm long overdue for a haircut. The "expensive" hair stylist joints have left me looking like an escaped mental patient. After too many of these incidents, I've decided that I will no longer get my haircut at a place where I can also get pedicures and manicures. I figured this time, I'll give the 50 cent streetside barber a try!

6:40p I'm drawing a crowd, it's not everyday a foreigner gets a haircut from the same place as where the rickshaw wallahs do...


6:45p Ah yes, I'm freshly shorn, and it's hands down the best haircut I have had so far in India. But wait, there's more! Every haircut comes with a scalp/back massage for better circulation. What a steal!



6:50p With my spiffy new haircut, I'm all ready to go out on the town tonite. It's still early in the evening though, time to head back home and rest up for a bit, maybe I'll do some reading.

On the recommendation of a friend since procrastination is common among grad students, here's a book I brought along with me...


I'm pretty sure I actually dragged this book to India purely for looks because I didn't even come close to finish reading it. Imagine that, a book on procrastination and time management, and I never got around to finishing it... Honestly, why would anyone who procrastinates ever finish a book about time management? Am I the only one who this doesn't make any logical sense to? Hah!

To be continued...

A Typical Day in New Delhi... (part 2)

9:35am Opps, a bit late for the meeting that started 5 minutes ago.


10am-1pm Typical work day stuff- drink coffee, check email, check news sites, check facebook, run analysis, drink chai, chat with others about project/dissertation stuff, drink water, make calls, etc...

1:15pm Ah, it's time for my favorite meal of the day! Lunch at the office is family-style, which is fantastic for me. Everyone brings in their home cooked meals in little aluminum pots and shares with everyone else like a mini-buffet. Home-cooked Indian food is without a doubt much better than what you can get in a restaurant. I'm not sure how I avoided gaining 15 pounds this summer. Of course I brought my "home cooked" food to share courtesy of a food vendor downstairs, made it myself, hah!


2p-4p See 10a-1p. I'm very well hydrated by this point.

4pm If it's a Friday, I'm probably scrambling around trying to figure out transportation and tickets for a weekend trip that night. Yep, I like to procrastinate in work AND leisure. I really do like taking the trains around in India, it's just less hassle and fantastic people watching! While trying to book tickets online for the Indian Railways, I found this very helpful website to buying tickets at the train station that one should "Take a print and keep in your Travel Bag" (I just love things like this about India).

Step 1: YOU ARE AT NEW DELHI STATION (PAHAR GANJ SIDE).
Step 2: THIS IS “INTERNATIONAL TOURIST BUREAU” BUILDING.


Boy, I don't know what I'd do without these very helpful steps (I'm not making this up, you can see for yourself here.)! Thank god they made the ticket buying process so "easy" for tourists!

6pm Work is over! Time to head home.

6:05p Doh! It rained. That means more haggling with the autorickshaw drivers (rain means they'll try to charge more since no one wants to walk during the monsoon). Worse yet, the streets are flooded, water "seasoned" by the streets of New Delhi is splashing everywhere (yay for a healthy immune system), and traffic jams galore. A 10 minute commute turns into 30...




To be continued...

A Typical Day in New Delhi...

Most of my blog posts have either been about rural villages or common tourist destinations in India. Truthfully, the majority of my life in New Delhi has been about the mundane, typical, everyday events. Here's a very common day of my life in India...

6:30am- Indian sunshine is beaming through the windows of my room. It's much too bright, I feel like a vampire. Pillow immediately goes over my head.



7:00am- "Alarm clock" goes off. It's laughing yoga in the park behind our apartment! It feels like I'm waking up to a studio audience in an Indian sitcom. It starts off with rhythmic clapping followed by lots of "ho ho ho's" and "ha ha ha's". Have a listen by clicking here.

7:30am- "Snooze" alarm goes off. "Ding dong, ding dong!!!" Our cleaning lady is ringing the bell downstairs. Despite the gate being open, she's a pretty persistent ringer. Ugh. Myself or my roommate stumble out of bed to let her in. I scare her with my bedhead and my boxer shorts wearing shirtless physique (that early in the morning I can care less what the neighbors think...). I go back to bed while she cleans up around me while I try to sleep. Yeah, yeah, I know it's pretty snooty, but dangit, 7:30am is just painful especially on the weekend! I'm pretty sure she hates me, my washed clothes have been coming back looking like they've been mysteriously tye-died with pink and blue blotches with rust thrown in for style points.

8:00am- No big surprise, can't go back to sleep while someone is sweeping and mopping around my room. I unhappily crawl out of bed to make a rousing breakfast of toast and either banana or mango. Everyday. I now hate toast.

8:30am- My roommates and I scour the the local newspaper for any of the parties we went to the other night and random funny stuff. Gotta love the Indian advertisements for fitness gyms. Stripper poles!

You too can look like a scary escaped Indian convict after working out at the gym!


9:00am- Time to leave the luxurious New Delhi apartment and find a ride to work.

Plenty of fruit/vegetable sellers on our street. Everyone is having their car washed too, which is a novelty to me since I haven't washed my car in the states in ~2 years.



9:05am- Avoid the cow at the round-about.


9:10am- Find a auto-rickshaw wallah.

9:15am- Haggle over $$$ with the auto-rickshaw wallah.
9:16am- Walk away in "disgust" over the inflated "tourist" price.
9:17am- Auto-rickshaw driver acts "offended" and grudgingly gives a counter-offer.
9:20am- Repeat the above several times...
9:30am- Arrive at work slightly frazzled. For those of you who haven't experienced an auto-rickshaw, it's kinda like the Indian version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland.

To be continued...

More Scenes of the Taj/Agra Fort

Scenes of the Taj Mahal from different locations in Agra.

Taj from the Sheraton's viewing platform-


Taj from the Agra Fort-


Taj and Tower-


Overshadowed by the Taj Mahal, the Agra Fort is magnificent in itself. Mughal rulers were based here, and at one time, the Agra Fort was the governing body of India. The Agra Fort actually reminded me quite a bit of the Red Fort in New Delhi.

The arches in Agra Fort were amazing-



Sweeper in a doorway-


Workers fixing the red brick road-


Agra Fort tour guide. How can you not trust a tour guide that looks like this?

The Equisite Taj Mahal

I finally made it to the Taj Mahal, the iconic image of India. While I still think there are more impressive sights to see, it is still a beautiful place. I happened to be there on "free" day, so everyone and their extended family were there which made for some fantastic people watching!

Entrance to the main courtyard-


Crowds galore! Definitely lots of bright colored saris everywhere. The line itself to see the main mausoleum wrapped around.



Hanging out in the doorway-

Down the side-


The Princess Diana bench and platform where she posed as well as Bill Clinton and Jacqueline Kennedy, remains a popular site to pose as well.
Some intentionally-

Others more informally...

Here Comes His Holiness, the Dalai Lama

On the way back to the main town, we came across these two elderly gents along the road.

One was nearly blind, and neither spoke a word of English. That didn't stop either from expressing their excitement as they kept saying "Dalai Lama! Dalai Lama!" and motioning towards the road. Apparently, the Dalai Lama was on his way back from his recent trip to the US! Good fortune for us.

Everyone came out to greet him. I mean everyone. Toddlers who could barely walk, senior Tibetans who could barely walk either. It was a complete family affair.


His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, is truly revered by the people. They brought out offerings for him.

Yes, this is really his vehicle (dang glare).


And yes, this is really him.


He even turned back, smiled and waved. I like to tell everyone that was towards us, hah! My friend was telling me that even a photo of just his robe is highly prized for good luck. Woo-hoo!

More scenes from Dharamsala

Prayer wheel and prayers inside the Tsuglagkhang Complex-



All day long these dogs slept piled on each other. I'm guessing it was a full night of hard work barking at rival dogs and peeing on things...


Vrooooooom!!! (yep, that was the actual sound effects!)


Fruit/Vegetable seller at Dal Lake

I really don't know why boating around in plastic animals (like a rubber ducky in a bathtub) is the thing to do with your sweetie. I just don't understand courtship in this country. Although I suppose with 1.3 billion people, something is going right...


Sellers of roasted snacks